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Education workers putting in long hours of unpaid overtime

23 February 2017

People working in education are among those most likely to be putting in unpaid overtime and clocking up 12.1 free hours a week, according to figures released today.

UCU said the figures, released as part of the TUC's Work Your Proper Hours Day, highlighted how staff working in schools, colleges and universities continue to go above and beyond the call of duty and put in the extra unpaid mile.

The analysis reveals that over half of people working in education (51.8%) do extra unpaid work. Only a greater percentage of finance managers are doing unpaid overtime. Education workers do an average of just over 12 hours a week of unpaid overtime - an amount only exceeded by chief executives.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'These figures reveal how staff in our schools, colleges and universities are going that extra unpaid mile. People working in education are more likely than most to be found putting in extra unpaid overtime and guilty of clocking up some of the most free hours each week.

'The time has come for schools, colleges and universities to recognise the hard work their staff do, reward them fairly and sort out their workloads.'

Today is Work Your Proper Hours Day - the day when the average person who does unpaid overtime would start to get paid if they did all their unpaid hours at the start of the year. More details are available at www.workyourproperhoursday.com UCU's own workload survey last year revealed that members in further education colleges are working an average of 51.4 hours a week and 39% of academics in universities work more than 50 hours a week.

Source: the TUC's analysis used unpublished ONS data from the Labour Force Survey (July-September 2016) and the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (2016)

*Functional managers: financial managers, marketing and sales directors, purchasing managers, advertising and public relations directors, human resource managers, IT managers.Other services: includes wholesale, waste disposal, estate agents, hairdressing and garages.Health and cares service managers: includes health care GP practices and residential day, domiciliary and home care. Health and cares service managers includes health services and social services. Both classifications include private and public sector employees.